Sculpted Weirdos

I have been creating these weird sculptures for a number of years now. I don't really know where they come from since they obviously have no connection to my illustrations or paintings. I do not use any reference and I am not emulating another artist. I do not plan or sketch ideas beforehand. When I work 2-D, I always do thumbnails and carefully consider my compositions. So these sculptures are quite the opposite. They really just emerge from my imagination and I produce them rather quickly. I use wood, foam, sculpey, and found objects to produce them. I never think of a commercial market for this 3-D work; the process is just for me...brain cleaning.

2010 Sports HOF Portraits

I just finished this year's portraits for the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame. I completed nine 9" x 12" portraits of the 2010 inductees. Here are a few of the paintings fresh off the easel. It is a lot of work and the only way that I can make the tight deadline is to work on them all at once. All of them are drawn in first, then under-painting is completed on all of the subjects before I move on. I work them up in layers with mixed media. I gain a certain momentum and rhythm as I progress towards a finish, so I tend to marathon it in my studio for many days. Lots of late nights.

I have completed 186 portraits for the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame since it's inception in 1987.

Shape Welding

I really should be posting this in the month of March, due to the subject matter, but I'll have moved on to something else by then. There was about a four or five year period where I just happened to be in NYC on St. Patrick's Day. It might have seemed intentional, considering my Irish heritage, but it was really about attending the early spring exhibits at the Society of Illustrators. The Parade was a bonus! It was a real marathon and I'm sure that all participants made sure to load up on liquid carbohydrates. I painted this scene from several bad photos that I had taken. It is a good example of "shape welding". I eliminated the separation of figures and combined all of the dark uniforms to make one large, more interesting, graphic shape. Cheers!